Reality show casting for local talent in East Stroudsburg

Local fame seekers will want to head to Liquid Restaurant and Martini Bar in East Stroudsburg on Friday where an open casting call is scheduled for a new reality show based on the restaurant.

CHRISTINA TATU

Local fame seekers will want to head to Liquid Restaurant and Martini Bar in East Stroudsburg on Friday where an open casting call is scheduled for a new reality show based on the restaurant.

"It will be about the drama in a restaurant, everything that goes on day-to-day," said Michael Tepedino, who took over ownership of Liquid and the neighboring Trackside Station Grill last June.

The casting call will start at noon on the Liquid side of the restaurant, located at 50 Crystal St. Participants will get a headshot taken and will be required to participate in a two-minute interview.

Producers are looking for people with "big personalities" who will come into the restaurant as regular diners.

"We want to build a customer base that comes in all the time, so we want to pretty much get some people to come in, eat, drink and get their back stories," Tepedino said.

He declined to release the name of the production company, saying he signed a non-disclosure agreement preventing him from doing so.

After the casting call, producers will start shooting footage three to four days a week in Liquid and Trackside.

In May, Tepedino plans to open an Italian restaurant in the building that used to house Liquid, located on Main Street in Stroudsburg, and filming will likely take place there as well, he said.

"The production company is very professional about what they are going to do. They are going to be filming, probably during the nights. Everyone will know they are filming, and they don't have to be on camera if they don't want to be."

It has not yet been determined what channel will air the show, but "four networks are looking at us," Tepedino said.

The owner of the production company came into Liquid one night for dinner, striking up a friendship with the restaurant's bartender.

"They asked my bartender if the owner would be interested in doing a reality show, and I was," Tepedino said.

Tepedino, a graduate of Pleasant Valley High School, worked as a busboy, dishwasher, cook, bouncer and doorman at Liquid before taking over the business from former owner Troy Nauman last summer.